As Meat Loves Salt

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Summary: The most thoroughly affecting novel I've ever read...
Review: As Meat Loves Salt is in no way an original story; the tale of betrayal, madness, sin, and, of course, love is one that has probably been told in a thousand other love stories, only in subtler tones. However, McCann has the surprising ability to draw the reader into the story, into Jacob. I felt his emotions with a acuteness I haven't ever felt from a book; when Jacob was happy, confused, enraged, I was with him. If you take a moment to step out of the book and look at him from a objective viewpoint, you see how mad he is, how self-destructive. But, while reading, you are so drawn up that you hardly notice; you just want him to be happy.

The outside of Jacob's psyche is just as vivid, and gritty with the realism of the period. Everything, the mud on the road, the smells of the city, the chill of sleeping on the ground, came together to create one of the most complete backdrops I've ever had the pleasure to read of.

My heart ached for Jacob throughout. When I finally finished, I put the book down and stared at it, as the last sentences repeated in my head. I couldn't sleep; I just lay awake and thought about it. It's haunted me since.

Read this book. There's not a single reason not to.

Rating:
Summary: An Augur of Things to Come
Review: As Meat Loves Salt is perhaps the best book that I have yet read in my relatively short lifetime. There is a force throughout the book that at once repels you and draws you in. There were scenes in the book that were too painful to bear because Miss McCann made the reader feel as though they, too, were vicariously living through Jacob Cullen's life.

Contrary to some others who have reviewed this work, I did feel sympathy for Jacob. I understood his sufferings and mistakes like I do my own. I saw myself in Jacob, though not to the extreme cases of the book. Perhaps, then, I am insane as Jacob, but I'll not comment further on that. =0 )

McCann's stunning debut work was well worth the time to read its 560 or some-odd pages, with flashes of light and strikes of darkness. It compels the reader to re-evaluate their own relationships and character, forcing them to perceive the passion, or lack thereof, in their own lives. The book is not a history of the English Civil War, nor is it primarily a love story between Ferris and Jacob. It is, rather, a semi-biography of a fictional character dealing with the consequences of a fatherless home. It is a theme with which sadly many in the English-speaking world can sympathize. In that respect, it is a call to action to protect our children from the effects of our misbehavior. And, I hope it is an augur of more great works to come from the pen of Miss McCann.

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Summary: Love's Labour Lost
Review: Maria McCann portrays some excellent characterisations of two men at loggerheads with both their feelings and their place in society in Restoration England. One of the best novels of its kind, it sizzles with tension which is diluted through the lovely usage of the contemporary spoken word - and Yes, yes Maria, it demands a sequal !

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Summary: Both appalling and appealing, but ultimately compelling
Review: In her first novel, set during the English Civil War, McCann takes a huge risk (and largely succeeds) in making the narrator deeply loathsome. Haunted by inner demons to the point of schizophrenia, Jacob Cullen is unable to control his rage, his murderous desires, and especially his jealousy, and he suddenly finds himself fleeing the comforts of his wife, his family, and the manor where he was a servant. He desperately attempts to corral his brutish manners but often fails when it matters most. Readers will probably alternate between horror at his actions and empathy (even sympathy) for his plight. More often than not, I found myself dreading to turn the page--but unable to stop reading.

To summarize the story is to give too much away. The plot twists began surprising me within eighty pages, and I wouldn't want to ruin the experience for others. Suffice it to say that events lead Jacob to join Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army and participate in one of its most gruesome sieges. McCann's stomach-churning descriptions of the battle scenes are equally compelling and unbearable--and the assault continues when Jacob and his newly found friend, Christopher Ferris, flee to the stench-ridden metropolis of London and, later, when they establish a homestead of squatters. Ferris, like the reader, is torn throughout these exploits by his own emotions toward the volatile Cullen: alarmed by Jacob's violence but disarmed by his underlying potential and attracted to his occasional tenderness.

One of the more astonishing aspects of the novel is the writing itself. Even established authors would have difficulty maintaining such a consistent tone for nearly 600 pages. McCann's wording recalls, but never slavishly imitates, the cadence of seventeenth-century prose, yet at no time is the narrative difficult to follow or read. The plot, the action, the characters, the writing--all the elements add up to a tour de force of historical fiction.

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Summary: Tragic
Review: I was literally sobbing at the end of this book! The last four chapters were almost too painful to read, but I could not stop. Told by Jacob Cullen, a brutal man, prone to bouts of black rage, As Meat Loves Salt is a story of love, war, and betrayal like none I have ever read. Had it been told from the perspective of another character I may very well have hated Jacob, but being privy to his thoughts and feelings I found him amazingly sympathetic and extremely compelling. I found myself hoping for his redemption even though I knew in my bones that he, and Ferris, were doomed. I read each chapter with trepidation, wondering when and how the axe would fall, therefore, it was painful to read about their love and the enjoyment they found in each other, in all things - not just the physical - because I knew it would end tragically. The love letter Ferris wrote was beautiful and McCann's use of it at the very end was simply devastating (hence my uncontrollable sobbing). Jacob became more human when he was with Ferris, and I felt as betrayed as Jacob did at the end, even though he essentially brought it on himself. Filled with such vivid descriptions - I seemed to hear, see, feel and taste everything. In all this, I credit McCann's wonderful writing. My only wish is I knew more about what happened when he was younger with his father and his brother, even though I think I can guess. As a straight woman, basically unfamiliar with novels depicting relationships like that of Ferris and Jacob, I found their story more staggering in its passion than most novels I've read depicting love between a man and a woman. Kudos, Ms McCann, and at the risk of sounding masochistic -- more please. When's the sequel?

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Summary: A rare, haunting novel - one of the best I've ever read...
Review: On my weekly library harvest, this was one of 7 or 8 books I brought home. I read it first for the action, expecting little. Surprised and enthused, I read it again to pinpoint the dates of the English Civil War and figure out the 17th century language to prospect for clues I missed the first time. I read it again for the pretty hot romance. I read it for the fourth time to figure out the characters and their deeper motives, then read it for the fifth time to solve the mystery of their pasts. Finally, I decided to BUY the book so I could run wild with a highlighter and make extensive margin notes. I read it for the sixth time to search for the details I missed the first 5 times. I'm on the seventh reading to figure out the sequel (PLEASE let there be one!). I refuse to relenquish my library copy (damn the late charges!) until my purchase arrives. I'm addicted. I will read this book many more times - there is much more to mine in its depths (yes, I know there are literary flaws with the book, but they hardly matter). I've spent hours trying to find a chat group or forum to discuss this book. I figure I've read about 8,000 book in my time, and would rate this in the top 20. If someone out there wants to talk about this great book, please e-mail me at [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: "...if it doesn't come back, hunt it down and kill it!"
Review: This book was handed to me by a colleague of mine. We both work in a library and I rely on her to give me books I wouldn't, in the course of things, find on my own. AS MEAT LOVES SALT is a good example of getting a gem instead of paste.

This is a story about two men who find each other in Stuart England as soldiers in the New Model Army during the violent civil wars of the mid-17th century. Narrated in the first person by Jacob, the bloody, chaotic and hardy atmosphere of the time is deftly recreated. The details about food, clothing, war preparations, the use of servants, printing, agriculture, life in London, in the war field and in the country, to name only some of the subjects, are finely drawn and heat this story to the boiling point. Jacob is essentially a violent, self-serving and evil person, but we are drawn into his heart and mind, and are made to feel compassion for his confusion, his misunderstood love, and his loneliness, as well as admiration for his strength and his intelligence. Maria McCann has created an overwhelming characterization which, despite his dire actions, I adored. Jacob could well be the author of the twisted sentiment "if you love something let it go, if it doesn't come back, hunt it down and kill it!" which I once saw written on a t-shirt. To describe the plot would be to destroy the pleasure in reading this book, being a true page-turner, the discovery of what will happen is the point.

The story is grand and panoramic, but I began to weary of its length, like attending a meal which is too rich to enjoy in full. However, just as I was beginning to flag, I was drawn in completely by its bitter, explosive and heartrending conclusion.

Rating:
Summary: Harrowing, Essential Reading
Review: When I first finished this novel, I felt a terrible need to get it out of my sight. I couldn't return it to the library since it was about two in the morning, so I hid it under a pile of clothes in my closet. Such was the impact this story had on me - I could barely stand to keep it in my house.

Sound terrible? Well, it was, but in the best kind of way. I suffered through everything with Jacob Cullen, Maria McCann's fascinating narrator. Jacob is somewhat schizophrenic and completely obsessed with violence, but like most people he has his own (flawed) reasons for what he does. He doesn't hate himself, so in seeing everything from his perspective it becomes difficult to hate him for his actions. One also becomes aware of every possibility he has to improve himself and his life. Christopher Ferris, Jacob's lover, is the kind of person any man or woman could (and does) fall for, passionately. This makes it all the more horrifying to be trapped in Jacob's mind as he watches everything good in his life come to ruin. The ending, as gut-wrenching as it is, seems inevitable given that it's brought on by Jacob and Ferris both being true to who they are, for better or worse. There's no escape.

It's also worth noting that much could have gone wrong in the craft of this book, but didn't - quite the opposite. Not only is there the difficulty of narrating from Jacob's point of view (the mystery that is Jacob is dribbled out in the smallest hints, dreams or passing thoughts, never given too quickly), but also the story stretches from a manor house to London to the common fields, and it's all covered in compelling detail. The language, too, never falters in successfully blending 17th-century and modern. The underlying motif of hellfire/desire could come across as overused, but in the circumstances it's the right metaphor.

When I first finished this novel, it was a year ago. I never thought I could go through reading it again. But a few days ago I picked it up and found myself just as compelled as the first time. This book has it all - full characters, mystery, eroticism, tragedy, detailed history and a sweeping insight into human existence. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

Rating:
Summary: "Let me, Let me....." An astounding first novel
Review: I have to say that it's been a very long time since a book bowled me over, has kept me up at night eagerly awaiting each page. But "As Meat Loves Salt" did it, and powerfully, too. Mis McCann has dazzled with her first published novel. As you can tell from other reviews here, it affected a lot of other people, too -- this is simply an astonishing and unutterably moving story.

The story is set in the first half of the 17th century, during the English Civil War. Many authors of less skill or taste would have "prithee"-and-"sirrah"ed us to death, but McCann manages to use a language that's our own yet clads itself in another time. The words never get in the way.

The tale had me in its grip from the first pages and never let go. Once the drama is underway, I wanted to read on, but, knowing the foibles of the characters so ably set out by the author, I also dreaded turning the page for fear that something awful might occur.

I was devastated at the novel's end; it affected me for several days afterward. I can not recall ever being moved in this manner by anything -- books, movies or music.

If you are a fan of period fiction or just love a well told story that you will never forget, this book is for you.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but not quite a masterpiece
Review: For us who live in the industrial West it is nearly impossible, and deeply frightening, to imagine a society so fractured and disordered as mid-seventeenth-century England. This bleak and desperate world is skilfully created in "As Meat Loves Salt" where life is, as Thomas Hobbes said at the time, nasty, brutish, and short. It is a world where Hobbes' hope that a man could be to other men as a kind of God is a utopian folly doomed from the start.

The friendship between Jacob Cullen and Christopher Ferris is the story of the age writ small. It is, as The Times Literary Supplement said, an allegory. Allegories can be tedious, but this one is compellingly written for the most part; the pages nearly turn themselves. The squalor, poverty, pain, and the casual and intended brutality of those years become very real. Love and kindness must be hardy indeed to have survived at all.

What did homosexual love look like in the seventeenth century? Maria McCann offers one possibility, that people loved where they wished and where their temperaments led them, mindful of religious teaching but unmindful of sexual categories. That hypothesis works for me. But could a committed, loving, sexual, same-sex relationship work in the seventeenth century? Well, read the book, and remember that it's an allegory.

As historical fiction, I think "As Meat Loves Salt" is less successful than Jamie O'Neill's "At Swim Two Boys" (ISBN 0743222954) or the best of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series. A problem with the book is McCann's decision to write in the first person. This creates unanswered questions of context: when and why is Jacob telling his story? Whom is he telling it to? In a novel about passion gone awry, Jacob writes with a dispassionate restraint that strikes me as inconsistent with his nature. The "I" who tells the story does not seem to be the "I" whose story is being told. Is this a telling some years later when Jacob has finally learned wisdom? That would make a hopeful ending to his life, but we do not know.

That said, this book is well worth your time, and despite its length that time will not be very long.